Keep your IMAGES SAFE | Synology NAS BACKUP for PHOTOGRAPHERS
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- čas přidán 28. 08. 2024
- If there is one subject that isn't spoken about enough it's backing up your precious images. So today we are tackling that subject!
As photographers we get through a large amount of storage and with RAW files increasing in size with every generation of new cameras thats not going to slow down any time soon.
Keeping your images safe is paramount, because once lost, images cannot be re taken. Gear can be re purchased, but all those shoots and precious moments are gone forever. So keeping them safe...well its pretty darn important!
Over the last few years I've been looking into ways of keeping my work backed up and safe, both onsite and offsite and recently moved over to a Synology workflow.
I've teamed up with Synology because I believe in their products, the guys hooked me up with the drives so I could share my thoughts on the system for photographers.
The NAS drives offer RAID protection as well as easy offsite storage to keep my images safe - Syncing up my files to be sure I have multiple copies in various locations.
Check them out at : www.synology.com
I personally use the Synology DS1517+ for home and the DS218+ offsite, for storing my images - Both filled with Seagate Ironwolf drives. Big shoutout to Seagate and Synology for helping me out!
DS1517+ here :
DS218+ here :
The Drives (I used 4tb in the 1517 and 12tb in the 218) here :
Awesome video and thank you for not confusing raid with backup.
I'm a tech guy and I cringe every time I hear someone saying "..and it uses raid so-and-so for backup". The web is filled with tech videos saying just that. Thousands of videos with millions of views, all trying to teach people that raid is a way to secure your data. If on the other hand you type "raid isn't backup" into youtube you'll find 2 videos with combined 275 views explaining why raid isn't backup. The amount of misinformation is breathtaking.
...and that's when I stumbled onto your video. Thank you for getting it right and for doing a solid explanation on why you're right. I find it funny that it takes a photographer to get it right when literally thousands of "tech savvy" people almost unanimously gets it wrong.
One thing though, in your video you say something along the lines of "if one drive dies I'll just replace it and let the synology rebuild the raid" - in theory you're correct, that's the way it works, but in reality the process of rebuilding a raid really stresses the remaining drives so it's not unusual for other drives to crap out too - and that's when you're happy to have a proper backup.
Raid is about up time. Raid allows you to keep working if a drive craps out. Maybe you have a deadline on a project then you just keep pushing for that rather than having to deal with your IT issues right then and there. You get to fix the problem at a more convenient time. Please don't just replace a broken drive while you have an important deadline, hoping that the raid rebuilding process takes care of stuff for you while you work - save it for a point when you have the time to deal with a broken raid and having to fix that, restore the backup and so on.
Thank you so much for your comment and helpful extra information. I too am conscious about poorly researched content and so always want to make sure I get these videos right for people. Full of useful and solid information that actually helps people out, I'd hate people to go off of advice to have it fail them and them loose their precious data! Cheers, Tom
Couldn't agree more with this!! I believe that while a NAS/DAS drive is very useful and I may implement it into my backup flow one day. However, people do not talk about the downfalls. Primarily if the enclosure itself dies/short circuits. You can't just replace the hard drives and you're good to go. It's going to kill the hard drives as well. Unless, maybe you get super lucky and can extract something out of them. I rather use 2 or 3 external hard drives and then a cloud storage for my workflow. Not to mention they're much more expensive than having multiple external hard drives because not only do you have to buy the enclosure you have to buy the Hdds a long with it. You need to use the 3-2-1 backup method, heck, even through in another one while you're at it!
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I’d love to also hear about your photography workflow. Where do you store files, organize them, are there interim versions while editing, do you create separate versions to share, print, print different sizes, etc.
I did loose all my photos . Thanks Drobo .Now looking to start over ,so I’m doing more research and not planning on trusting one device. I plan on adding cloud storage also.
Easy to follow along and provided great insight to a critical system/process, thank you for sharing this overview. Keep up the good work.
Great explanation thanks Tom, can you please do a video as to how you setup your NAS to allow clients to remotely view eg a specific folder of images, inc how you set them up and what you tell them to do to access that folder, thank you 👍 regards Ian
Thanks for the great video. I recently discovered Synology Nas and router and am amazed at everything one can do. I am in process of transferring all my photos. Keep up the good work!
Glad you enjoyed - they certainly are a great system and I’m sill unearthing features of use and developing my workflow!
Sir, the lighting in your video is so well done. Cheers.
Thanks dude!
Tom, thanks for the video. Very helpful. I've never used NAS but find that I really need to implement one as soon as possible and I really liked your idea of having a second NAS at an off-site location to serve as a backup to your primary NAS. Did you ever set that up like you were intending? If so, how did it go? I'm curious because I'm wondering whether the off-site NAS has to be set up the same was as the primary NAS, with the same number and type of storage drives. That is, if one has 2 x 8TB drives, must the other also have 2 x 8TB drives? I would't think so, and I was planning to spend a little more on my primary set up (ds918+ with four 4TB pro drives) and save money on the off-site setup (ds218+ with two 8TB drives). It would be the same amount of storage space, but the primary NAS would perform much faster because of the better CPU, RAM and RAID 10 configuration. I don't need the same performance in the off-site NAS, so I thought it might be a chance to save some money there. Do you think that would work?
Two years later I found this. Very helpful! It was clear and very well explained. I have a question, though: you said that your main LR catalog is on a separate drive. Does this mean that only the LR catalog file is on that SSD and the raw files are on the NAS? Or both catalog and raw data is on the SSD and there is a backup on the NAS? Or, in other words, do you edit directly from the NAS? I hope I was clear enough, haha.
so important to do backups!
i am even thinking about doing a third backup
ACID SNOW 3-2-1 backups.
Thank you - that was helpful. I am looking into a similar setup.
Great video, well done!
Hey Tom, thanks so much for this. It may not be a sexy topic but it’s such an important one and you’ve explained it really well. If you ever have any interest in doing a follow-up, I’m just about ready to invest in a NAS system but what I’m still unclear on is how I would handle mobile editing. Do you do any editing on a MacBook or iPad Pro? At the moment I sync everything through Adobe’s CC, thus giving me backup and access to my whole catalog everywhere, but I know that will get too expensive really soon and I wonder how versatile a NAS system is in terms of editing away from one’s desktop computer (looks like an iMac in your case) and how one handles Lightroom catalogues to that end. Sorry for the long message, thanks as always for the continually great content!
I recently bought a synology drive and am just having the hardest time making sense of it and trying to incorporate everything into my workflow. Do you use the raid drive as your main library of images, or keep a copy of everything to it while keeping other external drives. I do wedding and fine art photography and would really like to make sure everything is organized in the most efficient way possible.
Hi Tom,
I watched with interest your video. very good., nice.
I have a question about NAS and Lightroom.
Can i have save images on the NAS and access them directly with Lightroom without copying them to the internal hard drive on my laptop! ??
Thanks!
Tom - thanks for this informative video.
I had one question - many photographers (myself included) have a workflow that uses PhotoMechanic and Lightroom that references their RAW files. Do you work off your NAS (culling/Lightroom impors) or do you only use it as a backup/storage?
Thanks-
love your videos. Im always waiting for them. Keep them coming
Superb video! Thank u for this video. 👍
Ohh I may have to treat myself to one of these xD great video as always Tom and thanks a lot for sharing with us! #bestyoutuberever!
Be interested to know what it's like editing off a 1gb connection as the bigger model you have has option for 10gb connection. Is it slower than an internal hard drive DAS
Hi Tom! Just discovered your channel and thank you so much for this video! Do you think you might do a video on setting all of this up? I have a Synology NAS but I’m struggling to understand everything as I’m not the most tech person. Thanks again! 😊
I wasn't planning to however there are a boat load online that are great for getting to know how to set things up ands get things working. I find the Synology videos are very helpful and break things down nice and slowly for implementing as you watch. Any problems let me know, Cheers, Tom
Thanks for the video. So just to recap, you have one 12TB in your DS 218+ and it's just for the backup not RAID?
Hi, what was the Synology backup solution you mentioned (I think it was a two-bay option)
Does the Synology IPhone/iPad app show thumbnails for raw files, e.g. for .NEF files? I use a WD MyCloud NAS drive where the phone app doesn’t show thumbnails so makes finding photos difficult.
Hey! Thanks for the video, really helpful. I have just got a 4 bay synology system after losing all of my edited work to a ceased external hard drive :( Absolutely heartbreaking!! Thankfully I have discovered my naivety right at the beginning of my photography journey so it could have been a whole lot worse. I have a question for you if you happen to know the answer? I have an old MacBook Air that I use PS/Lightroom etc on but it has VERY little storage left on it (hence only having the above mentioned lost files only on the hard drive) is there a way to set up the NAS as a scratch disk in PS so I can save each PSD file directly? Thanks so much for any help! I’m going to go & check out your channel in case there is anything there already. Thanks so much in advance! Lucie
What’s your folder and workflow structure?
Hi, thanks for the great info here. Can you suggest a supplier for this system please?
Hey Barney, Personally Amazon always have good deals -> Synology page is here amzn.to/2KuKlsB you can also find links to the Seagate pre populated drives here amzn.to/2KHpHox to make things easy!
Tom Mason thanks Tom, will have a look at those links
Hi Barney, in addition to Tom's response below, Synology works with a great number of resellers who can also help you with implementation. Feel free to reach out to Synology and we can help you with selecting the best unit for your needs and which resellers are in your area (www.synology.com/en-us/form/inquiry/product).
Really helpful Tom thank you 👌🏾
Why not burn all files to Blue-ray M-Disc? They can be stored for your whole life.
Are both your synologys encrypted on device and in transit between the both
Hi there, this is so temping! But a lot more $$$ than the OWC option I was considering. Where do you get your Ironwolf drives out of curiosity? Thanks!
I was very fortunate to get them sent over by Seagate directly - However the best prices are often found on Amazon - if you keep them in mind they often have sales when they can be picked up for a decent discount. The system is a touch more expensive as an outlay that other options but in terms of use and flexibility it is wonderful to work with!
Cheers, Tom
nice work.... Quick question what happen if Synology DS218+ 2 Bay are full of space, do you buying new Synology DS218+ or buy more space on hardisk like 10TB
Sorry for the slow reply, you can add larger HD's as you've suggested or you can add the an expansion unit that gives you extra bays to expand the raid, just adding extra drives to the current system. Cheers, Tom
@@TomMasonPhoto Thank Tom for generosity. 🙌
@@TomMasonPhoto The DS218+ is NOT expandable. That's what the "2" in the model means - two drives maximum. My DS918+ is a 4 bay unit but I can expand it with the 5 bay expansion kit to make it 9 drives total. The DS718+ is a two bay unit that will accept the 5 bay expansion. The "18" means its the 2018 model year release.
Losing all my food pictures??? OHEMGEE NOOOOOOOOOO!
Who cares about your food pictures? We are talking about profession photographers that create art!
This come across as a Synology NAS vlog... nothing on using the NAS for photography workflow 👎
NAS is NOT Backup!
Hence the video explaining the importance of two backup locations
@@TomMasonPhoto Some folk ...